That's Life
by emeraldonix
Summary: Sakura and Sasuke have always been friends. It just fits. It doesn't hurt that they're interests are the same and both find each other to be outrageously attractive...
1. It's Homecoming!

**That's Life**

"SASUKE UCHIHA WAKE UP! YOU ARE MY ESCORT TO HOMECOMING AND I'M NOT MISSING IT!"

I sit up to fast and get a head rush. Hovering right in front of me is a very angry Sakura. She's in a skin tight, dark grey dress that goes to mid thigh. It has one thick shoulder strap, and the other shoulder is bare. Her long pink hair is curled, and her makeup is light, but I can tell she's wearing it because her eyes are even greener than normal. She's too tall, so I'm assuming she's wearing heels. I can't tell though, because I'm still in the hospital bed. My brother is standing behind her, and when we make eye contact, he shoves a pile of clothes into my hands and I frown down at them. I push Sakura back so she isn't breathing on me, then I climb out of bed and make my way to the bathroom to change.

I tap my foot to the beat of a random song that I can't remember the name to and glance at the clock. What's taking so long? He's been in there for twenty minutes! The shower shut off ten minutes ago! That bastard better hurry! I swear if I'm late…

The door creaks open and Sasuke's standing in the door, ready to leave. The dance isn't that formal, and you can wear whatever you want. Girls always wear dresses, but guys usually wear a pair of nice jeans and a decent shirt. Sasuke's wearing dark denim jeans, with a button up black shirt. He hasn't buttoned it yet, and he has a white beater underneath it. I walk forward and button it for him. "Come on! We're going to be late because you had to shampoo your hair!"

I pull him out of the hospital room, and Itachi follows us down. Sasuke's already been cleared to leave and Itachi quickly signs some papers saying that he'll take responsibility for him. We head out into the parking lot, and Sasuke slides into the passenger seat, while I get stuck in the back again. Earlier I had ridden back to Konoha with my mom to shower and change. Itachi had called me and offered me a ride back up to the hospital to get Sasuke. He was still over in Suna and I was not going to go to Homecoming without an escort.

It's seven now, and the dance starts at eight thirty. If Itachi speeds a bit (which he would do anyways even if he wasn't in a hurry), we'll make it just in time.

I grab Sasuke's hand and run for the door. It's raining out and I'm trying to protect my hair and makeup from it with my arms. We make it to the door before we get too wet, and we are immediately ushered to a line of Seniors who are all candidates for Homecoming King and Queen. If you're in a sport, you get to be part of this. A little more than half of our class is lined up. There are more girls than guys, so a few guys have two girls. My friends are at the end of the line. We go behind Neji and Tenten.

Our class song _She Will Be Loved_, starts to play, and the first two walk out. There's polite clapping, and a few whistles. This continues, until Hinata and Naruto go out. Naruto insisted that they couldn't just walk out normally, so he's now carrying her bridal style. Poor Hinata is beat red. There's a few catcalls, a ton of whistles, and many, many shouts of approval. I even heard a few "Awe's". Next is Ino and Kiba. They both look like models, with their tall builds, and perfect bodies. There is earsplitting squeals and rowdy shouts from both genders. Next are Karin and Suigetsu. Karin has jumped on Suigetsu's back, and he gives her a piggy back ride out. Again, there is a lot of cheering.

Watching them piggy back ride has given Tenten an idea. She takes off her heels, and makes Neji hold them. "What are you doing?" he asks.

She bends over slightly, braces her legs, and holds her hand out behind her back, signaling that she wants him to climb on. "No."

"Yes, damnit! Climb on!"

"You're insane!"

"GET ON, BITCH!"

Shortly after their rather loud conversation, Neji reluctantly climbs on her back, and she carries him out. Laughter and applause fill the gym. I can't stifle a giggle when Suigetsu slaps Neji on the butt when Tenten walks past him. I'm about to link my arm with Sasuke's, when I'm picked up and slung over his shoulder. "Put me down!" I hiss into his back.

He doesn't respond, and when our names are announced. He walks out. There's some chuckling, but it's mostly applause, "awe's", and whistling. Sasuke's fan girls are squealing. How typical. I give up on fighting him, and I turn my head to look at the bleachers. I start to laugh to try to tone down the redness in my cheeks. My laugh goes from strained, to true, as I realize how ridiculous I must look.

We get to our spot, and Sasuke gently sets me down. I playfully slug him in the arm, before I link my arm through his.

A spotlight goes to Iruka Sensei who is standing in the middle of the bleachers. "Ok! Your votes have been tallied! It was a close one, so we will now have our top four contenders step forward!" He clears his throat. "Naruto, and Sasuke! Would you please step forward!" Squeals and howls of approval fill the room. "Hinata and Sakura!"

Me and Hinata look at each other, astonished. Slowly we make our way forward.

The spotlight falls on all four of us, and the volume in the room picks up to ear splitting. "Now for the results! By seven votes, our Homecoming King…. Is…. Sasuke!"

Insert heart-eyed screaming fan girls. I fight the urge to cover my ears. I elbow Sasuke, who elbows me back. "and our Homecoming Queen… by twenty votes… is… Sakura!"

I stare wide eyed up at Iruka. I point at myself when he looks at me. I mouth "me", and he nods. I drop my hand and turn to stare at Sasuke in disbelief. "Me?" I ask him. He chuckles and slightly ruffles my hair before I slap his hand away. "Yes, you."

I feel a smile creep up on my face. "Now let's have our King and Queen start the first dance!"

I turn to Sasuke and reach up to wrap my arms around his neck. I sometimes forget how much taller he is than me. He gently wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into him as the song _Innocence_ by Avril Lavigne comes on. We gently sway to the music. "So, Mr. King Uchiha, what's it like to have a title that matches your arrogance?" I say while smiling playfully up at him.

He dips his head down, and I feel my heart jump thinking that he's going to kiss me on the lips. Instead he kisses my forehead, and says, "It's matches perfectly. Just like an advertisement would look perfect on that forehead of yours."

I stick my tongue out at him, and I'm about to respond, when someone bumps into us. I look over to see Ino and Kiba right next to us. "Hey, I hate to interrupt the love fest here, but Sakura, you are attracting a lot of glares and possible cat fights." Ino says, not even looking away from a smirking Kiba.

I look around and realize she's right. I can feel Sasuke sigh, and I look up at him. He' glaring at the girls. They're too busy gossiping about me to notice his look.

The song changes, and I recognize the beginning of _Shake That_. Girls start to move towards Sasuke, no doubt planning on asking if he wants to "dance". By that they mean grind, and their version of grinding is sex with clothes on. They might even go as far as to try to unbutton Sasuke's shirt. That was not very smart of Itachi to bring that shirt. He probably did it on purpose, I suppose.

"SAKURA-SAN!"

I jump and spin around to find Lee. "Oh, hi Lee." I say quietly. Sasuke's smirking at me. I start smirking back when the girls finally make it to him. "So, Sakura, do you want to dance?"

I fight to keep my supper down. Yuck. I would rather die. But I can't just flat out say no… Oh! I know! "SORRY! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IT'S TOO LOUD!"

"WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME!"

"WHAT!"

"I SAID, WILL YOU D-"

"Sakura."

I whip around and almost have a heart attack. Just a few seconds ago, he was behind Lee, and somehow Sasuke managed to sneak up behind me. I feel his arms wrap around my waist, and I immediately know what he's doing.

Now I know what you're thinking. It's something along the lines of, "This is his way of confessing! He's in love with you! YAY!". Well, you're wrong. We are merely using each other to avoid our creepy infatuated classmates.

I take a step backwards, and I bring my hands up over his. I sway my hips against his, and occasionally push them back into him. Now, it would not seem like this was going to lead to anything, well until his arms slipped from around my waist, and made there way down to grasp my hips. Occasionally they would even run up and down my thighs. Oh, I can just picture the bright red tinge in my cheeks.

Oh, crap.

Red cheeks.

Butterflies.

Having fun.

My skin is ignited.

Lust.

Sasuke has managed to AGAIN develop our relationship past the friendship level. JESUS! WHY IS THIS BOY A GOD! WHY!

I slide my hands up to lightly grip the back of his neck. I can't even hear the music, or make out any faces. There's just faint blurs around us, and the feeling of my body moving with Sasuke's. I know I'll want to bash my own head in later, but I don't care. This is perfect.


	2. Here I come

**That's Life**

I finish putting away my trombone and run for the cafeteria so I won't have to wait in a huge line. There's a couple Freshman standing around not paying any attention, and I jump in line next to Sasuke and Karin. "You two are such Geeks!"

I stick my tongue out at Karin. "You're just jealous we get to go to Florida. Sasuke how'd you get out of the band room so quickly?"

He looks down at me after grabbing a tray. "I set my drum down and walked out the door."

I grumble and shove him out of the way so I can grab a tray. I look at the lunch line and notice it's Pizza Hot Dish. Yuck. It's so… so… bland! Ick! I look at the soup and see… POTATO SOUP! Score! I zoom over to the soup and fill a bowl until it's basically overflowing. I grab an apple juice, crackers, and a yogurt and head to our lunch table. I sit down, and soon Sasuke and Karin make their way over. Everyone else has classes on the other side of the building, so they're at the back of the lunch line. I watch with amusement as Ino shoves her way through everyone and gets her salad. She struts over in her high heels looking as graceful as ever and neatly sits down next to Sasuke. "Guess what!" She squeals.

"You failed another test and flirted with the teacher until he gave you an A." Karin answers not even looking away from Gaara who she is currently raping with her eyes.

"No! Just because I'm friends with you doesn't mean I'm a slut too!" Ino shoots back at her. Karin just smirks.

"Well anyways, I signed up for the skit! Oh, and Sakura, I signed you up for float committee."

"WHAT!" I screech. I hate doing stuff like this. There's only three days for me to slop something together! Karin's the artsy one anyways! Why can't she do it!

She smiles sheepishly. "They needed someone to organize it, and-"

"PIG! YOU'RE DEAD!" I say standing up.

Sasuke yanks me back down. "Sakura you're not going to do anything so sit back down."

I do. But I was going to do something, I swear! Stupid Sasuke; underestimating me! Pshh!

I finish my yogurt, and everyone else shows up when I start slurping down my amazing soup. "So who's house are we going to so we can get ready for the dance on Saturday?" I ask.

"My parents are gone, but they won't care if you guys come." Ino says.

Naruto snorts. "HOW do they trust you more than me? You make me look like the angel child!"

Ino rolls her eyes. "I've never set the house on fire by tripping over a cord and causing an electrical spark! And besides! I'm not throwing a party or something. These losers are just coming over"

Naruto shuts up. Tenten yawns and rolls her shoulders. "Where is the meet tonight again?"

"It's in Suna. They have the Conference meet on Saturday too." Neji replies.

Tenten cheers. I'm excited for tonight too. It's almost completely flat and the easiest course ever.

"Hey, so since Ino's having all you girls over, I'll have all of us men meet up too."

Karin rolls her eyes. "Are you going to do each other's hair and makeup? I'm sure Neji would just love to share his straightener!"

I laugh along with Tenten, Ino, and Hinata. The guys don't find it too funny.

I stretch and stand up just as the bell rings. "Come on Sasuke. I'm not getting stuck in the front again with that perverted Jiraiya Sensei again. We don't need a repeat of the skirt incident."

Sasuke looks down at my legs. "You're wearing jeans."

"I don't care! It's awkward having him stare me down! I bet he's bi… hey Sasuke, do you want to-"

"No. Come on."

He grabs my hand and pulls me to his locker. I keep my history stuff in his locker since it's right next to the room and I don't want to have to go upstairs just to come right back down.

I skip inside and Sasuke is right behind me. We sit in the far back corner and I pull my phone out. I check my calendar and notice it's my mom's checkup tonight. See, she had breast cancer, but they found it early on and were able to treat it. She's been cancer free for two months, but they scheduled a checkup just to make sure it didn't come back. She's been feeling fine she says though so I completely forgot about it.

The late bell rings and Jiraiya Sensei walks in. "Before we move on to the quiz (pause for our groans), Lady Tsunade asked me to refresh your memories of the rules of the Homecoming Dance. There is no, I repeat NO grinding aloud. At all. Oh, and no drugs or alcohol and all of that shit. Well anyways about that quiz…"

"Please release the cross country kids from class now," the intercom blares.

I jump up out of my seat and skip out of the room with Neji following me out of our AP Chemistry class. I run to my locker and dramatically twirl in front of it before opening it. "Someone's a little happy."

I turn around and find Sasuke. "Today's my chance to beat Temari!"

He smirks. Pshh. Just because he's ranked number one in the state does NOT give him the right to smirk at me. I'm number three for the girls! That's pretty good in my book. But NO! He has to go and be number one because he always has to be better. Jerk.

I shut/slam my locker after I grab my bag and he turns away and starts walking away. I run up to him and slam my bag against his chest. "Can you carry that? I have to find my tampon."

"I didn't ask why, but thanks for sharing Sakura. I will now have that thought stuck in my head for the rest of the week whenever I look at you. Thanks for that."

I smile. "It's your fault for being my best friend. I need someone to tell all of my girl stuff too and you are the first candidate."

"Let's save this stuff for Ino, ok? Oh, and I don't need to know when your boob itches or you have a wedgie either. That's need to know information and you're the only one who needs to know." Sasuke complains.

I stick my tongue out at him. It wouldn't be Sasuke if he couldn't find something wrong with it. "And stop doing that! It's like you're asking someone to suck on your tongue and the last thing I need to be seeing is you latched on to some guy."

I make a face at him. "Well someone sounds jealous!"

As I walk away I slap him on the butt. "Sakura!"

That woman is crazy. Absolutely crazy! And disgusting, and dorky, and childish, and touchy, and grouchy, and opinionated, and intelligent, and funny, and caring, and cute and unique… and my best friend. Oh god. I'm in deep shit now.

I sit down towards the back of the bus and hear a screech from outside. "Tenten give fluffer-nutter back!" I hear Sakura whine.

I look out the window and see Sakura and Tenten running around in circles. Tenten is holding a pillow pet cat in one hand and holding it up in the air so Sakura can't reach it. I chuckle when Sakura starts to pout. "Teeeennniiiieeeeeeeee!"

"Foreheeeeaaaaaad" Tenten mock whines.

Sakura lets a tear streak down her cheek. What a dirty little cheater. No one can deny her when she starts to cry and she knows it. Not even Tenten; the girl who tortures people for the fun of it. The cat flies through the air and Sakura catches it and cheers all the sudden the happy ditsy girl again.

She climbs the bus stairs and hurls her bag at me. I catch it and drop it on the floor next to mine. She plops down and places fluffer-nutter on my lap and lays her head down on it. "Sakura-"

"Shhhh! I'm sleeping!"

I sigh. Stupid, childish, adorable girl. Why do I let her have whatever she wants?


	3. Race time

**That's Life**

I yawn and sit up after being woken up by a speed bump. I look out the window and see we're at the school. Perfect timing. Sasuke puts fluffer-nutter on my lap and stands up to stretch. "Next time you sit on the inside and put your head on the window. You are not lying in my lap for two hours again. Now I'm all stiff and it's your fault if my time sucks today." He complains.

"Pansy." I mutter.

We climb off the busses and all of the guys set up the tent. Our cross country has almost a hundred kids. That's not even a tenth of the school though. We're division one along with Suna, Oto, Ame, Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa, who are all in our conference. For the past years, Suna and Ame have been our number one competitors, but Kiri actually has the number one ranked girl. Her name is Gin. Suigetsu used to live there, but after his parents divorced he came here with his dad. Ame has the number one ranked boy's team, while we have the number one girl's ranked team, but the Suna girl's and boy's teams are right up there. One bad race and they could easily take first today.

I crack my back and slip off my lime green crocks and sit down to put on my running shoes. When I have them laced up, I stand up and turn my iPod on to my competition play list. I have this weird thing where I always feel better about running if I listen to certain songs. I have to go to the bathroom before a race too. Me, Hinata, and Tenten are strangely the only Senior girls on the team. Most of the girls in our grade get winded just from looking at a track. Wimps.

"Ok! Let's go walk the course!" I shout. I start walking with Hinata and Tenten next to me and fifty girls trailing behind us. We're like a massive sea of green and black. We wind around the golf course and half way through start a slow jog to warm up. The guys pass us towards the end hollering and being wild like usual. Typical men.

We get back to the tent and we all circle up to stretch. Seniors always stretch in the middle leading everyone. There are only five of us total. Isn't that sad? All the other guys in our grade are on football, practicing for another sport that they are extremely serious about (like Suigetsu with swimming), strict academics, or drugies. There isn't a single soccer player out of over 250 kids.

I crack my back one last time, wish the JV girls good luck, then run over to the porta potties. There isn't a line considering this is only a duel and almost no one is here to watch us run.

After I'm done, I run over to the bridge they cross. They've already gone across it once, but they need to come back to it eventually. The girl's course is 2.5 miles and the boy's course is 3.1 miles. I see Ami, a freshman from Konoha come around the corner headed towards the bridge and I cheer her on. The next person to round the corner is Kin, another freshman from Konoha. There's a Suna girl after her, and two more Konoha girls, both Sophomores. Most of our better runners are Freshman and a couple Sophomores. There is only one Junior that's really good and that's Raya and she's on Varsity with me. There's only seven on Varsity and it's in this order starting with the best; Me (Boo ya! I feel like I'm bragging… Oh well! I'm HAPPY), Umi, Tenten, Hinata, Raya, Hanabi, and Kyoma. Umi is a Freshman and she's ranked number four in the state right behind me. She was always right on my heels at the beginning of the season, but I drew ahead a bit now that I've had more training. Tenten and Hinata are both Seniors like me obviously. Raya is the junior I was talking about earlier, and Hanabi is a freshman too. Kyoma is a Sophomore and she was runner up at state last year, but now she has gotten much more curvy and she gained over two minutes which is a lot in runner speak.

I have already run back to the finish line and I look at the clock. It's at 16:30 and Ami's average time is 17:13 but it will be a bit quicker here considering there are no hills. Sure enough, I can see her at the one hundred fifty marker and she starts sprinting. I cheer her in seeing as no one is really around because they're still running around cheering for everyone else. She crosses the finish right at 16:49. Pretty good. Kin and the Suna girl are even when they come in, but when Kin sets her sight on something, she can usually pull it off and she crosses a heartbeat before the other girl. The sophomores come in next at an easy gait seeing as no one is remotely close to them. The coaches would have their heads if they had seen them come in so leisurely seeing as we are supposed to go for time instead of place. Three Suna come in, followed by four Konoha and another Suna. I stop keeping track of the order because we already won the JV race because you count the top five runners for the score.

I hear our coach whistle and I quick run over to him. When Kakashi whistles, you come; no buts, unless you feel like running Golon's (It's a fish farm out in the middle of nowhere that we run out to. It has a ton of hills and it's probably six or seven miles total, not counting the hills we would have to run once we were done). He's already at the starting line and has Vicks in his hand. I take some from the container and rub it all around my nose and put the leftovers on my chest. Tenten and Hinata come over from the tent and do the same, shortly followed by Hanabi and Umi. Kyoma is last and has her spikes in her hand because she was in the middle of putting them on when Kakashi whistles. She sits down and quickly slips them on and triple knots them.

"Ok girls, we trained for this. Remember we want a PR (personal record) today. Just remember, this is shorter than horse barn (our easiest run; we run past a horse barn so therefore it's called horse barn). Don't try to help ANYONE! Once that whistle blows, you're rivals. Don't speak, don't look back, don't complain aloud or in your head, because it will put you in a bad mood." He says, never lifting his eyes from his book.

Someone taps me on the shoulder and I spin around to find my face smashed against someone's chest. I stumble back and look up at the guy. "Oh, it's just you." I say to Sasuke.

He smirks and holds my spikes out. "Forgetting something?"

I glare at him and swipe them away from him, slamming my Ipod into his hand. "Shut up." I mutter.

Once I have my shoes on, I stretch one more time. "FIVE MINUTES! FIVE MINUTES!" The starter yells.

"Strides!" I yell, and the girls follow me out at a fast pace. On the way back to our starting spot, we do butt kicks. We run out one more time, and do high knees on the way back. "TWO MINUTES! TWO MINUTES!"

I take a deep breath, and lean down to massage my calves. I jump a couple times, and roll my shoulders. "ONE MINUTE!"

I close my eyes and think of my race song.

_When I walk on by, girls be looking like damn he flyI pay to the beat, walking on the street in my new lafreak, yeahThis is how I roll, animal print, pants out control,It's real fool with the big afroThey like Bruce Lee rock at the club_

_Girl look at that body, Girl at that body, Girl look at that body,_

_I-I work out!_

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5..."

The gunshot goes off and I take off at an almost sprint to get at the head of the pack.

_I'm sexy and I know it!_

I sing that phrase over and over again in my head as I run. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Temari, and… Midori?

Wow! I heard that she had improved, but I didn't know this much…

She cuts off Temari, and swerves to run right next to me. We run over the bridge right next to each other, both fighting for dominance, when she says all nonchalantly, "So you're friends with Uchiha right? Is he a good lay? I've been looking for a knew one, and he's caught my eye."

My eye twitches. Seriously? ANOTHER fan girl? Dude! NOT cool man, not cool. Wait, why does she think I would know if he's a good lay? HOW WOULD I KNOW WE'RE FRIENDS YOU TWIT! Urgh. Grr.

I decide just to ignore her and pay attention to my running again. We run past the mile marker and the timer tells me my pace is, 5:31. I pick up my pace, because I'm SO CLOSE to Gin's average pace of 5:27. Yes, I stalk her. Well, her races anyways. I'm that determined.

Midori picks up her pace and tries to cut me off at the next corner. What a bitch move! Instead of slowing down like someone typically being cut off, I keep my pace and "accidentally" step on her heel with my sharp half inch spikes and hide my satisfied grin when she yelps. I notice Sasuke standing right around the corner, and he shakes his head at me. I subtly flip him off as I run by and here a chuckle from behind me. I look down at Midori's foot again, and notice a little dot of red on her white sock. Serves her right! I cut her off on the next corner (eat that bitch) and look ahead trying to make out the next mile marker. It should be right around this corner… Yes! There it is!

I proceed to start singing _Fast Lane_ by Bad Meets Evil in my head.

_Catch me in my MercedesBumpin' "Ice, Ice Baby," screamin' Shady 'til I dieLike I have a pair of dice, life's crazySo I live it to the fullest 'til I'm SwayzeAnd you only live it once, so I'm thinkin' 'bout this nice, nice ladyWait, no, stop me now before I get on a roll (Danish)Let me tell you what this pretty little dame's name is, 'cause she's kinda famousAnd I hope that I don't sound too heinous when I say thisNicki Minaj, but I wanna stick my penis in your anus!You morons think that I'm a geniusReally I belong inside a dang insane asylum, cleanin', try them trailer parksCrazy, I am back, and I am razor-sharp, babyAnd that's back wit' a capital B wit' an exclamation mark, maybeYou should listen when I flip the linguistics'Cause I'm gonna rip this mystical slick shitYou don't wanna become another victim or statistic of this shit'Cause after I spit the bullets, I'ma treat these shell casings like a soccer ballI'ma kick the ballistics! So get this dick, I'ma live this_

I only have an eight hundred (half a mile for those not in track or cross country) left and I pick up my pace. Man, this is kind of painful!

I can hear Midori's breathing close by and out of the corner of my eyes, I can see her shoe every once in a while. At the four hundred mark, she breaks out into a sprint and passes me. Oh HELL NO bitch! I don't think so! Ugh! Die! Why do I have to sprint the entire four hundred? What did I do! God, I swear if this is because I missed church the last month, I'll never skip again if you just don't torture me anymore! I promise!

I give out an exasperated sigh and start sprinting too. Soon we are neck and neck on the last one hundred. I can see all of my team by the finish line jumping around like madmen and screaming my name. Midori picks this opportunity to speak. "So, you never answered me, about Sasuke…"

Die, die, die. Shut it! Grrrrrr. She gives one last burst of energy, and even though I feel like I'm about to puke, I pull out the big guns. I lengthen my stride to it's to its max, which really hurts my thighs let me tell you. I hold my breath so I don't have to put up with the aching in my lungs, and lock my eyes on the finish line, completely tuning out all of my various ailments. I slam my foot down past the white marker a second ahead of Midori.

I allow myself to breathe and almost groan at the aching. I shakily put my hands on top of my head, and stagger over to Sasuke to collapse into him. "I did it." I breathe out.

"Hey Sasuke!" Midori says while latching onto his arm. If I was a cat, I would be hissing and spitting. This is MY territory BITCH! I stand up straighter and wipe the sweat off my forehead. I grab Sasuke's hand and try to lead him away, but Midori keeps a firm grip on him. We share a glaring contest, which Sasuke seems oblivious to. "So how's your heel Midori? I'm _so_ sorry!" I sneer sarcastically.

She narrows her eyes. "Oh don't worry dear!"

She runs a hand down Sasuke's chest. Oh. No. She. Didn't.

"Saaaassssukeeeee." I whine. "I'm thirstyyyyyyyyyy"

He stares down at me with a raised eyebrow. I once again "accidentally" step on Midori's foot and tug Sasuke from her slutty grasp. I drag him with me towards the tent before Midori can try any other "seductive" moves.

"What, was that?" Sasuke asks me.

I smile sadistically. "You have another fan girl my dear."

He rolls his eyes. "No, I mean what were you doing? You were acting like a pissed off squirrel the way you were climbing on me."

I stick my tongue out at him and look down to hide my blush. Wait, BLUSH! Oh crap no! Not this again! I thought when I got over my crush on him in sixth grade, this was done! Grr. Curse you!

"Sakura? Are you, blushing?" He asks.

I ignore him and quickly run off into the woods. He starts to follow, but he knows once I'm in the woods, I'll only be found if I want to. I climb a huge pine tree that overlooks the course, and sit there to wait for the JV boy's race to start. Not long after, I hear a gunshot and some cheering from the few spectators there are. I climb down so I'm only fifteen feet off the ground.

I see guys running by after five minutes and I cheer for the ones I can recognize from up here. I see Sasuke walk by below me, and I sit completely still and barely breathe. He doesn't even look up. He just keeps walking and crosses the bridge, probably watching Konohamaru for Naruto. I yawn and lean back against the tree trunk. Maybe a five minute nap wouldn't be so bad…

I sit up with a start and scream when I lose my balance and fall from the tree. I land with a groan on the pine needles covering the hard ground. I roll over and stare at the tree I was just in. What woke me up again? A gun shot… A gun shot!

I jump up and run off the course. Just in time too, because Sasuke and Neji run passed almost right after I move. I cheer them on as they give me a questioning look as to why I was lying in the middle of the course.

I know that if I go somewhere else to cheer them on, I might not make it back to the finish line in time, so I just go directly there to wait for them. I look over a timer's shoulder and see they're at 10:34. I'll give Sasuke five minutes and he should be around the corner. Hey, what was my time anyways? I'll ask Sasuke when he's done.

Sure enough, Sasuke's sprinting in with no one in sight. I cheer like a maniac anyways. Just as he crosses the finish line, I read over the timer's shoulder again, and see he got a time of 15:11. Holy crap. His average mile time was like… Under 5 minutes!

He's breathing heavy, of course. I shove my water bottle into his hands and he nods his head at me in thanks before guzzling down half the bottle.

I drag him to the tent and he puts sweats on over his shorts because they're short and I've been teasing him since freshman year about them and he's grown self conscious of them. I'm so mean.

He pulls on his warm up jacket and I realize how cold I am. I didn't think it would be cold today so I didn't pack a sweatshirt. I dig through Sasuke's bag until I find his sweatshirt. I slip it over my head and prance in front of him making sure he sees Uchiha printed across my back so he knows I took it. I don't have to turn around to know he's shaking his head. Where's the sign-out sheet? I am NOT riding home on the bus. "Can I ride with you and Itachi?" I ask as I scribble my name down on the sheet.

"Seeing as you already signed yourself out, sure." Sasuke says writing his own name down.

We congratulate Tenten, Hinata, and Neji when we walk past them. We find Itachi flirting with the slut of the hour. "Hey Midori, are you going to just hit on all of the Uchiha until you find one that doesn't gag when they look at you?" I yell causing quite a few people to stare at us.

She turns bright red with embarrassment and anger. She doesn't even give me a retort when she stomps off to her harem of crazy harpies. Itachi raises his eyebrow at me. "What did she ever do to you? I was having some fun there! We were planning… something…"

"It's called statutory rape Itachi and I just saved you from 3-5 years in prison. Then you'd be stuck having butt sex with some guy named Larry." I say while shoving my bag into his arms seeing as Sasuke's are already full.

"Where do you come up with this stuff?" Itachi asks me as we're walking.

"I've known you for how long? Long enough to know I need to know a lot of useless facts to make witty comebacks with. If I don't than you do and we just can't have that now, can we?" I say while looking at the sidewalk making sure I don't step on the cracks. We should probably stay for the awards ceremony, but Kakashi can just grab our medals. It's only a duel after all. I want to get home to see my mom anyways.

Itachi unlocks the car and I sprint forward and climb in the passengers seat. Itachi runs to the driver's side, and Sasuke stands next to me looking down into the car at me with his arms crossed trying to look stern. When I show no signs of moving, he picks me up and opens the back door and throws me in. "Hey!" I shout.

He ignores me and crawls in the seat he not so very kindly just removed me from. I sit in the middle so I'm at least in between the two so I can talk to them easier and buckle up, dropping my stuff next to me. I dig fluffer-nutter out of my bag and hug him to my stomach. "Hey Sasuke, where's my Ipod?"

He reaches into his pocket and hands it back to me. "No! Plug it in!"

He looks from my Ipod, then up to me. "Oh come on! You know we have the same taste in music!"

"Sakura, you like all music but country. I only like rap. I'm positive there's Avril Lavigne and Maroon Five on here and I'm really not in the mood for listening to them." He says, still holding my Ipod out for me to take.

I snatch it out of his hand and slouch down in the seat. "Fine. Can you at least turn the radio on then?"

Itachi turns on the radio and _Just Lose it_ by Eminem comes on. It's the end of the song, and I join in for the last words. " UmMmMmm touch my body. UmMmMmm touch my body. Ooh boy just touch my body. I mean girl just touch my body!"


	4. Getting into Character

**That's Life**

I jump out of Itachi's car and look back to make sure I grabbed everything. I run into my house to find my mom sitting on the couch watching TV. "Hi mom! How'd the appointment go?"

I sit down next to her, dropping my stuff at my feet. She smiles at me kindly. "Great sweetie. I'm recovering nicely." I smile. "Good."

"So how'd your race go?" She asks, switching off the TV.

"I got a PR today. I think my time was 13:26."

"Good job!" She hugs me, but quickly pushes me away. "Yuck! Go shower Sakura! You smell like sweat!"

I stick my tongue out at her and climb up the stairs. I throw my clothes in the dirty laundry and I go to the bathroom in my robe. I turn on the shower and sigh as I step into the warm relaxing water. The knot that was forming in my shoulder immediately eases and I rub it until it's gone. I use my strawberry shampoo and wash the pine needles out of my hair. My conditioner follows, and I rake a brush through my now soft hair. I quick shave my legs, and surprisingly only knick myself three times. I scrub my face, then I hop out. I wrap my hair in a towel and dry off my body before slipping my robe on. I go to my room and look at my billboard. I have a list of the week's dress up days. Tomorrow is the Prince and Princess day. I can wear my prom dress! I pick up my phone and send Sasuke a text.

**To: Sasuke**

_Wear a suit tomorrow. No buts. I'm turning my phone off so you can't deny me and if you don't wear it without telling me, I'll be heartbroken. See you tomorrow my prince ;)._

With that, I shut off my phone as I promised and look at the time on my Ipod. It's almost nine. I climb in bed after shutting off the lights in my room. I check Facebook for notifications, then I put it on it's dock. The dock is also an alarm clock, so I set it for six a.m. and set the song to _She Will Be Loved_ by Maroon Five. I yawn and roll over in my bed to hug my Sasuke pillow. Yes, I name my pillows. I also have a Naruto pillow, a Hinata pillow, and a Tenten pillow. I'm cool like that.

I shut my eyes, and at some point I fall asleep listening to the steady thrum of my ceiling fan.

I grumble as I roll out of bed half an hour after my alarm clock went off. I stalk to the bathroom and slip in water when I walk in. So Itachi was already in here. I turn on the water and let out another yawn. I crack my back, and then climb in the hot shower immediately feeling reenergized.

I go back into my room, and begrudgingly I remember I have to wear a suit. I hate suits. I look in my closet, and I pull out a plain black one along with a white button up shirt and a dark blue tie. I walk down the stairs and find Itachi and Shisui sitting at the breakfast table. Why is Shisui here of all days? Shouldn't they be at college right now? It's not a weekend!

They both look up when they hear me, but quickly do a double take. Shisui slams his fist on the table and starts hysterically laughing. Itachi smirks. "May I ask why you are wearing that?"

"It's homecoming week." I say.

Itachi nods slowly. "And since when do you dress up?"

"Since Sakura decided she was going to make him." Shisui comments.

I glare at him. Unfortunatly he knows about Sakura, but he's convinced we are dating. I've simply given up on trying to convince him we aren't. He took that as my confession.

I grab a disposable coffee cup from the pantry and pour myself a steaming cup. I grab a waffle, that my mom made earlier and slather it in jelly before heading out the door with my backpack and cross country bag. I set my coffee in the cup holder of my Mercedes and throw my bag in the passenger's seat. I turn on the radio and pull out of the driveway. I look at the clock and see it's already 7:20. I finish off my waffle and take a sip of my coffee. This will be a long day.

I check myself in the mirror once more before leaving to go to school. I'm in my prom dress from last year and I'm still just in love with it as the day I picked it out. It has a sweetheart neckline and is a crimson color. It's tight until my hips where it flares out to make the dress look like it's from a fairytale. It has little gold beads spread across my chest and right above the flaring part. My hair is braided down my back and my mom dug out her old Prom Queen crown. I wanted to be comfortable, so I'm wearing converse since my dress covers them anyways. I run down the stairs, double check that I have everything, then I run across the street to Tenten's. I bang on the door and hear footsteps coming. The door swings open and Tenten flies out. She loves Halloween and was a gothic princess our freshman year and she's wearing it for today. She has a black wig on that has straight hair that goes to the middle of her back with bangs in the front. There's a small part of the hair that's a white streak. She has a white and black ball gown that looks like princess Peach's dress from Mario. She also has a black crown that looks suspiciously like it's supposed to be a spider. Her toes are peeping out and I can tell she's wearing combat boots. She has on white face paint and black lipstick and thick eyeliner to pull it all together. I smile at her and try not to laugh. "Let's go your highness. Our princes await."

"I swear I'll shoot Neji if he didn't wear a suit. Hey, hears a crown I found in the basement. It turns out Kyle and his boyfriend were both prom kings so they had their crowns in the basement. You can make Sasuke wear this one."

I snicker. I'll never get used to the fact that Tenten's Uncle is gay. Not that I'm gayest. I think it's pretty cool. I'm not gay either if that's what you're thinking.

We walk to school and go sit at a table by the stairs. Sasuke's car pulls up and he swaggers over to us. I hold the crown out to him and he sticks it on his head. You should see all of the girls fawning over him. They're being very obvious about it. I don't know how they don't end up killing each other to get to him. Instead they aim their snide comments at me. How thoughtful.

Next Naruto and Ino pull up (they're twins) and I bust out laughing. Naruto's wearing a cape and carrying a scepter that looks suspiciously like a pimp cane. He has one of those big king crowns on that has the two gold pieces that cross over and the red velvet underneath. He walks up to us with a big grin on his face. I look behind him and see Ino's wearing her prom dress too. It's a dark blue ball gown with a halter top neck style. It flares out at her hips like mine and has metallic colored embroidery at the bottom hem of the dress, and scattered over the rest of it. There's two layers to the bubble skirt and the top layer has this gathered effect and slits up on the side to show off the embroidered second layer. From how she's walking, I can tell she's wearing the matching five inch heels. She has her Prom Queen Crown on. Her and Naruto were the Prom King Queen and King of last year and watching them couple dance with each other was quite hilarious. Ino glared at him the whole time while Naruto was making sarcastic remarks about incest.

Neji and Hinata were next to arrive. Hinata's in an evening gown that she probably wore to a formal dinner her family hosted. It's a simple form fitting lavender colored dress. Neji is wearing a suit similar to Sasuke's and Tenten wastes no time getting over to him and literally slamming a crown on his head.

Karin and Suigetsu come next. Suigetsu is wearing skinny jeans, with the tux jacket that he wore to prom on over a Beatles shirt. He has a crown on his head and it's tilted slightly. Karin is wearing her prom dress. It's a form fitting dress, with a low v-neck. It's a shiny gold with glitter on the top slowly lessening as it goes further and further down until there is none on the bottom. There's a slit going up the side that reaches to just above her knee. She's wearing the matching gold heels and a little kid princess crown with purple trim on it.

Senior's will have the advantage today since we all have prom dresses. Tomorrow's theme is Pirates of the Caribbean. Each grade gets to choose a theme. Sophomore's got Monday, Freshman took Tuesday, we chose Wednesday, and the Juniors were left with Thursday. Friday is always school spirit day.

Kiba shows up just before the bell rings. He's wearing the same thing as Neji and Sasuke only with a light grey button up shirt. We stand in a big mob with Naruto and Ino commanding center stage as usual. Ino is recruiting boys for the boy's cheerleading team for our Thursday night powder puff games. Naruto just got the T-shirts from our class advisor. We're the graduating class of 2011, so the front says "Seniors?" in a graffiti font and the back says "He11 Yeah". The shirt is a Hot Pink and the 11 in he11 is a metallic gold. It looks amazing. The only really bad design is the Juniors. The Freshmen shirts are a turquoise color. It has "Freshmen" on the front with 2014 shadowed behind it. On the back it says, "Dang, we're fresh, man". The Sophomore shirts have "Sophomore" on the front in a curly font. On the back it says "Well, at least we're better than Freshmen". It's a lime green with black font. The Juniors shirts are Orange and on the front it has "Juniors" and the back says "Haters keep hating" which makes no sense because the Freshmen are hated on, not the Juniors. They're just stupid like that. Hey, that should be their motto! Hah! I'm so funny!

The bell rings and I walk up to Sasuke starring at him expectantly. He stares at me blankly. "What do you want?"

I give him a cheesy smile. "You have to carry me around today!"

"I don't think so. Come one we're going to be late." He says while linking his arm with mine. Naruto says goodbye to everyone and races after us.

I throw my crap on the floor after I get inside the house. I ignore the stink I'm positive is emanating from me, and go straight for the fridge. I pour myself a glass of chocolate milk and sit down in the living room to watch Spongebob. It's the one with the Sea Bear and Squidward getting mauled while he's camping in his front yard with Spongebob and Patrick. This is the best one hands down. After I sing the Campfire Song, I finish my drink and put the glass in the dishwasher. I head upstairs to shower.

When I'm done I go into my room and do my AP History notes. After an hour of scribbling in my chicken scratch, I finally finish the section assigned to us. I look at my phone and see that Ino called for a movie night. We're going to watch Pirates of the Caribbean to "get in character" for tomorrow. I text her back asking who's invited and she replies "The losers, who else?". I shake my head. She's so affectionate, isn't she?

I leave my mom a note after trying her cell. I have no idea where she could be, but she's probably shopping with Sasuke's mom.

I jump in my Honda Civic and take off with my Ipod already plugged into my car. I hit play and _Pumped Up Kicks_ blares through the car. I bob my head to the tempo and start dancing stupidly. To anyone that passes me, I probably look like I have turrets.

I pull into Ino's driveway after five minutes and park behind Sasuke's car in the driveway, purposely trapping him here until I decide to leave. That's what he gets for taking my typical parking spot.

I run to the door and jump up the two steps. I knock as I'm opening the door and race down the stairs to the soundproof basement knowing we're going to watch it on the projector screen.

I run up to the back of the couch, and jump over it to land right on Naruto's and Sasuke's laps. They're playing Call of Duty while waiting for everyone else to show up. They're also shirtless. That's nice.

"Do you enjoy walking around half naked in the presence of a female, or did you just forget your shirts?" I ask them.

"What female?" I hear Sasuke mutter.

I shift on his crotch and he painfully hisses and pushes me off of him. Eat that bitch!

I lay my head down on a pillow next to Sasuke and sprawl the rest of myself across the guys. Sasuke puts his controller on my stomach, while Naruto's using my legs. I close my eyes and start to belt out the lyrics to _Get Low_. "3, 6, 9! Damn she fine! Hoping she can sack it to me one more time. Get low, get low, get low, get low."

Naruto picks up where I left off. "To the window, to the wall! To the sweat drip down my balls! Down these bitches growl!"

I crack my neck and stretch my back conveniently at the exact time Sasuke is about to try to snipe at Naruto. When I shift, it causes him to twitch his thumb and miss by a ton. "Sakura!" he yells.

"Yes?" I say innocently, batting my eyelashes.

He glares at me, then goes back to the game.

Karin jumps over the couch and lands on Sasuke's controller, making it smash into my stomach and causing me to lose my breath. "K-Karin!" I manage to get out.

She looks down at me. "Yes?"

"O-Off! G-Get o-off!" I say while moving my hand to pinch her butt. I succeed and she jumps off with a yelp. Suigetsu sits down on Naruto's lap and puts on a gay voice. "Mmmm. Aren't you lookin' fine tonight. What do you say you go up to your room and I'll go grab the whipped cream?"

Needless to say Naruto dived off the couch to land by Sasuke's feet. Sasuke finally got his shot in and killed Naruto. "Damn it, Suigetsu! Go be gay somewhere else!"

Karin plops down on Suigetsu's lap and he wraps his arms around her waist. "Naw… I just wanted this spot. And seeing as you're a homophobe after the Sai incident, I knew that would get you up and out of it."

Sasuke pushes me off of him and I roll off the couch and land on Naruto who grunts. Sasuke stands up and walks over to the Xbox to shut it off. Suigetsu chucks Naruto's controller at him, and it smacks him on the arm. "Fuck Suigetsu!" Sasuke curses.

"Potty mouth!" I yell rolling off Naruto. When Sasuke steps over me, I grab his ankle and cause him to fall over. He puts his hands out to break his fall and they land on Naruto's stomach causing him to howl in pain. I stand up quickly and walk up his back until I'm at the couch where I sit down crisscross applesauce. He rolls off Naruto and lays on the ground groaning. "I think you severed my spinal cord." He mutters.

I jump over the back of the couch suddenly hungry and run up the stairs. I open the freezer, and to my amazement, I find whole fruit popsicles. I look over the colors, and grab a red one. I stick it in my mouth, only to quickly spit it out into my hand. It's really cold and I resist the urge to throw It away. It's tomato flavored. TOMATO! Since when are there tomato flavored popsicles? I knew Kushina was a health nut, but seriously? Tomato? I grab the darker red and read the label this time to make sure it's a better flavor. It's strawberry. Yum. I stick it in my mouth to get rid of the nasty tomato taste and slam the freezer shut. I run over to the stairs and get to them at the same time as Ino who had been upstairs digging around looking for the movie. "Tomato? Seriously?" I say holding up the nasty frozen fruit.

She crinkles her nose. "Oh, I know! And no one will eat that flavor around here either!"

"Sasuke will." I say.

"Ooo! Good idea. Now I know what to get him for his birthday! He's so hard to shop for!"

I stare at her strangely. "He would definitely be surprised to unwrap a box of popsicles."

I run down the stairs, and Ino follows me. Kiba materializes and jumps out at us when we walk passed him. Needless to say he is doubled over seeing as my first reaction to any male jumping out at me is to hit the target zones; nose, gut, and groin.

"Whoopsie!" I yell.

I step over him and shove Sasuke's popsicle into his hand. "It's tomato. I don't want it and I already opened it and sucked on it so I couldn't put it back."

"Thank you for your slobbery second hand popsicle." He sarcastically remarks. He eats it none the less.

The doorbell rings, followed by the sound of a door slamming open and someone tripping over the step up into the house. "Neji you klutz! Why do you fall everywhere we go?"

I roll my eyes. "Maybe because you drag me into every obstacle possible? That's just a guess, though. _Highly_ unlikely." I hear him shoot back. I can just feel his superiority complex radiating down the stairs carried by his voice. Typical Neji. I just wish he would realize he is letting a 5'3" girl drag him around like a poodle when he himself is 6'1" and only surpassed in height by Sasuke. What a wimp.

I look at the couch and decide there is no room for me. Ino and Kiba are sitting there, along with Naruto and Hinata. Suigetsu and Karin are on the loveseat, and there is room for one more person. I head over, only to be cut off by Sasuke who sits down. "Bitch move, Sasuke. Bitch move." I say shaking my head and narrowing my eyes at him. He just smirks up at me. I wipe that smirk off his face by jumping down in his lap. I sit sideways, and tuck my feet underneath Karin's butt. She shifts until she's comfortable.

Sasuke has nowhere to put his arms, so he rests them around me. "Whoa there bucko! I don't think so! Just because you are feeling lonesome by all of the couples around us does not give you the right to court me!" I say in a southern accent.

"Court you? Sakura you're the one who sat in my lap!"

"Now don't go changin' the subject! You know, the stories I could tell of-"

"Sakura shut the fuck up the movies starting." Tenten says cutting me off.

"Down south, that kinda language could get you the death chair little missy. Why now I reckon-"

Sasuke puts his hand over my mouth. I lick it, but he refuses to move his hand. I hack a loogie into his hand. That does the trick. He pushes me off his lap and goes to the bathroom to wash it off. If he had just removed his hand, that wouldn't have been necessary. I was done talking in my accent because this is the awesomest movie ever and I'm actually going to tune into it now.


	5. Competition

**That's Life**

I finish putting away my trombone and run for the cafeteria so I won't have to wait in a huge line. There's a couple Freshman standing around not paying any attention, and I jump in line next to Sasuke and Karin. "You two are such Geeks!"

I stick my tongue out at Karin. "You're just jealous we get to go to Florida. Sasuke how'd you get out of the band room so quickly?"

He looks down at me after grabbing a tray. "I set my drum down and walked out the door."

I grumble and shove him out of the way so I can grab a tray. I look at the lunch line and notice it's Pizza Hot Dish. Yuck. It's so… so… bland! Ick! I look at the soup and see… POTATO SOUP! Score! I zoom over to the soup and fill a bowl until it's basically overflowing. I grab an apple juice, crackers, and a yogurt and head to our lunch table. I sit down, and soon Sasuke and Karin make their way over. Everyone else has classes on the other side of the building, so they're at the back of the lunch line. I watch with amusement as Ino shoves her way through everyone and gets her salad. She struts over in her high heels looking as graceful as ever and neatly sits down next to Sasuke. "Guess what!" She squeals.

"You failed another test and flirted with the teacher until he gave you an A." Karin answers not even looking away from Gaara who she is currently raping with her eyes.

"No! Just because I'm friends with you doesn't mean I'm a slut too!" Ino shoots back at her. Karin just smirks.

"Well anyways, I signed up for the skit! Oh, and Sakura, I signed you up for float committee."

"WHAT!" I screech. I hate doing stuff like this. There's only three days for me to slop something together! Karin's the artsy one anyways! Why can't she do it!

She smiles sheepishly. "They needed someone to organize it, and-"

"PIG! YOU'RE DEAD!" I say standing up.

Sasuke yanks me back down. "Sakura you're not going to do anything so sit back down."

I do. But I was going to do something, I swear! Stupid Sasuke; underestimating me! Pshh!

I finish my yogurt, and everyone else shows up when I start slurping down my amazing soup. "So who's house are we going to so we can get ready for the dance on Saturday?" I ask.

"My parents are gone, but they won't care if you guys come." Ino says.

Naruto snorts. "HOW do they trust you more than me? You make me look like the angel child!"

Ino rolls her eyes. "I've never set the house on fire by tripping over a cord and causing an electrical spark! And besides! I'm not throwing a party or something. These losers are just coming over"

Naruto shuts up. Tenten yawns and rolls her shoulders. "Where is the meet tonight again?"

"It's in Suna. They have the Conference meet on Saturday too." Neji replies.

Tenten cheers. I'm excited for tonight too. It's almost completely flat and the easiest course ever.

"Hey, so since Ino's having all you girls over, I'll have all of us men meet up too."

Karin rolls her eyes. "Are you going to do each other's hair and makeup? I'm sure Neji would just love to share his straightener!"

I laugh along with Tenten, Ino, and Hinata. The guys don't find it too funny.

I stretch and stand up just as the bell rings. "Come on Sasuke. I'm not getting stuck in the front again with that perverted Jiraiya Sensei again. We don't need a repeat of the skirt incident."

Sasuke looks down at my legs. "You're wearing jeans."

"I don't care! It's awkward having him stare me down! I bet he's bi… hey Sasuke, do you want to-"

"No. Come on."

He grabs my hand and pulls me to his locker. I keep my history stuff in his locker since it's right next to the room and I don't want to have to go upstairs just to come right back down.

I skip inside and Sasuke is right behind me. We sit in the far back corner and I pull my phone out. I check my calendar and notice it's my mom's checkup tonight. See, she had breast cancer, but they found it early on and were able to treat it. She's been cancer free for two months, but they scheduled a checkup just to make sure it didn't come back. She's been feeling fine she says though so I completely forgot about it.

The late bell rings and Jiraiya Sensei walks in. "Before we move on to the quiz (pause for our groans), Lady Tsunade asked me to refresh your memories of the rules of the Homecoming Dance. There is no, I repeat NO grinding aloud. At all. Oh, and no drugs or alcohol and all of that shit. Well anyways about that quiz…"

"Please release the cross country kids from class now," the intercom blares.

I jump up out of my seat and skip out of the room with Neji following me out of our AP Chemistry class. I run to my locker and dramatically twirl in front of it before opening it. "Someone's a little happy."

I turn around and find Sasuke. "Today's my chance to beat Temari!"

He smirks. Pshh. Just because he's ranked number one in the state does NOT give him the right to smirk at me. I'm number three for the girls! That's pretty good in my book. But NO! He has to go and be number one because he always has to be better. Jerk.

I shut/slam my locker after I grab my bag and he turns away and starts walking away. I run up to him and slam my bag against his chest. "Can you carry that? I have to find my tampon."

"I didn't ask why, but thanks for sharing Sakura. I will now have that thought stuck in my head for the rest of the week whenever I look at you. Thanks for that."

I smile. "It's your fault for being my best friend. I need someone to tell all of my girl stuff too and you are the first candidate."

"Let's save this stuff for Ino, ok? Oh, and I don't need to know when your boob itches or you have a wedgie either. That's need to know information and you're the only one who needs to know." Sasuke complains.

I stick my tongue out at him. It wouldn't be Sasuke if he couldn't find something wrong with it. "And stop doing that! It's like you're asking someone to suck on your tongue and the last thing I need to be seeing is you latched on to some guy."

I make a face at him. "Well someone sounds jealous!"

As I walk away I slap him on the butt. "Sakura!"

That woman is crazy. Absolutely crazy! And disgusting, and dorky, and childish, and touchy, and grouchy, and opinionated, and intelligent, and funny, and caring, and cute and unique… and my best friend. Oh god. I'm in deep shit now.

I sit down towards the back of the bus and hear a screech from outside. "Tenten give fluffer-nutter back!" I hear Sakura whine.

I look out the window and see Sakura and Tenten running around in circles. Tenten is holding a pillow pet cat in one hand and holding it up in the air so Sakura can't reach it. I chuckle when Sakura starts to pout. "Teeeennniiiieeeeeeeee!"

"Foreheeeeaaaaaad" Tenten mock whines.

Sakura lets a tear streak down her cheek. What a dirty little cheater. No one can deny her when she starts to cry and she knows it. Not even Tenten; the girl who tortures people for the fun of it. The cat flies through the air and Sakura catches it and cheers all the sudden the happy ditsy girl again.

She climbs the bus stairs and hurls her bag at me. I catch it and drop it on the floor next to mine. She plops down and places fluffer-nutter on my lap and lays her head down on it. "Sakura-"

"Shhhh! I'm sleeping!"

I sigh. Stupid, childish, adorable girl. Why do I let her have whatever she wants?


	6. Goal

**That's Life**

I wake up to my iPod dock blaring out _I Can't Do It Alone _by 3OH!3. I groan, and turn off the alarm. After a minute, I turn down the volume to a much softer level, and the music is just enough to help me wake up slowly. After listening to _One Less Lonely Girl _and _Sexyback_, I role out of bed and grab my uniform for cross country. The big Conference meet in Suna is today. All of the division one teams within roughly forty five miles of us are here. Sectionals is next, and if we make it past that, State. There'll be almost forty teams there. I think we stand a good chance of going. We're ranked number one for girl's teams. The guys are ranked fourth.

When I'm dressed, I go downstairs to find my mom just finishing making breakfast. She made me eggs and toast, the breakfast I eat before every meet. I quickly eat it, then I run back up the stairs to brush my teeth, and grab my bag that I packet last night. I have an extra sweatshirt, my spikes, warm up shoes, money, my phone, and a t-shirt that says KXC on it, and the back says, "Some call it obsessive compulsive. We call it Cross Country."

We get team shirts every year. My freshman shirt says on the back, "Do you like my shirt? After the race I'll let you read the front". My sophomore shirt says, "Our blood, our sweat, your tears". My junior shirt says, "You ask me why I run? The same reason I breathe". Cross Country sayings are the best.

I put my light green watch on and look at the time. It's twenty to seven. I grab my Ipod and run down the stairs. I grab my lanyard with my keys on it and slip my feet in my lime green crocks. "Bye mom!" I shout, then I'm out the door.

I jump in my car and turn on the radio. I pull into Tenten's driveway, and she comes out of the house and gets in the car next to me. Her hair is French braided down her back and she has lime green pre wrap. I would wear pre wrap, but it doesn't stay on and it drives me nuts. I prefer just to have my bangs whip around. It's not really getting in the way of anything.

We drive to the school and get there with ten minutes until the bus leaves. We climb up in it and I find Sasuke sitting in our usual seat. I slide past him so I'm on the inside. I place fluffernutter against the window and bring my feet up so I can curl up. When the bus starts to move, I can feel myself drifting off.

I stretch when I feel Sasuke poke me in the bicep. While I was sleeping, I moved my head from fluffernutter to Sasuke's shoulder. He's scowling at me. "You are the most restless sleeper." he growls.

I smile at him as I stretch again. "You've told me that since freshman year and it hasn't changed yet. What makes you think it will make a difference this time?"

His glower doesn't waver. "I'm afraid if I stop saying it you'll get worse."

I nod and roll my eyes. I grab my bag from under my feet and put in on my lap. We've arrived at Suna and the bus driver is just pulling into our designated parking space. We all pile off and meet up with the kids from the other bus. Hinata, Tenten and Neji were on that bus and they make their way over to us. We walk in the front of the sea of black and green, and set our stuff down where we always set up when we come here. The guys leave to go set up the tent about ten feet from us, and when they're done, we move our stuff under the shelter just in case it rains, although it's not likely. It's pretty cold, though. I dig out my extra sweatshirt which just happens to be the one that I stole from Sasuke at the last meet we had here. Our tent is right next to the finish line and right up against the rope so we have a good view of the runners. The girls will race first, followed by the guys. Our race is at 10 and it's nine right now. I pull on my warm up shoes, and go stand beside the tent. When all of the other girl eventually make their way over to me, I lead them around the course at a fast walk. We start jogging at half way, and once again, the guy pass us towards the end. When they run past, the Ipod amplifier I'm carrying is blasting out _Sexy and I Know It_ and they sing along. They slow down to run with us, and we have a choir of a hundred kids all singing LMFAO. Naruto would be so proud if he saw this.

We get back at around 9:30 and everyone splits into small groups to stretch. All of the seniors gather by a tree and start stretching. One moment, I'm standing with my hip cocked to the side and stretching my arm, and the next I'm on the ground with a blond idiot suffocating me with her hair. "Get… off!" I huff out.

Eventually she rolls off and sits up to stare down at me taking deep breathes. I sit up and look around to find that Naruto did a similar thing to Sasuke, only now they're wrestling. If Kakashi saw them, Naruto would be skinned and hanging by a toe from the finish line results board. Karin, Suigetsu, and Kiba are standing behind me, watching the wrestling match with great interest. After getting kicked in the face, Naruto lets go of Sasuke and crawls over to me suddenly losing interest in the Uchiha. He hugs me and screams something along the lines of "Being very proud".

"Shut up you idiot! I'm trying to get into my running mood and you're interfering!" I say pushing him off.

He mocks being hurt, and ruffles my hair, before standing up. Ino has already gotten up, and offers me a hand. I take it and she pulls me up. I mutter a thanks and go back to stretching. They all take a hint and go off to take up cheering posts all over the course.

"Fifteen minutes to race time!" I hear a woman announce over the speakers.

I set my Ipod down and head over. Our slot is number 7, the slot on the end. It's just big enough to fit fifteen in the front. The Varsity and top scoring JV girls stand in the front with everyone else behind us. We do a few strides, get our pep talk from Kakashi, put some Vicks around our noses, and go back to our slot with five minutes left. I close my eyes and sing _Photofinish_ to myself.

"One minute!" The starter calls.

I bend down and massage my calves. "Fifteen seconds!" I start singing _Sexy and I Know It_ to myself. "Ten…. Nine…. Eight…. Seven…. Six…. Five…" _BANG!_

I take off, leading the pack along with Temari, Midori, Gin, and Tenten. I have Gin to my right, and Tenten on my left. Midori is in front of me, and even though it's only the start of the race, I'm already pissed off. I'm not someone you want to piss off.

Gin kicks it in after the first eight hundred, and when she starts to ditch us, I take off after her. I look over my shoulder, and find Tenten and Temari are battling it out with Midori right behind them, not looking so good.

Even though Gin is my rival, it's almost a companionable silence between the two of us; well that is if you don't count the cheering crowd. I've already seen Naruto three times, and it's only the first mile. Just as we step on the mats that mark the mile, I see the clock says we're at a 5:26 mile pace. I'm surprised I'm not breathing harder. Gin, I can tell is laboring, and I feel a rush of determination and hope flood through me. I pick up our pace, and she fights to keep it. We come back across the bridge that you cross at the beginning, and up ahead I can see the two mile marker. I pick up the pace even more when I hear Naruto screaming out my name. By the time I reach the four hundred, I can feel the burn. Gin is really struggling, and I think something might be wrong. "Come on Gin! We're almost done." I huff out.

She turns to look at me, and actually gives me a genuine smile. She keeps with me, and only at the two hundred where I start sprinting, do I finally pull ahead. I finish five seconds ahead of her, and when she starts to collapse, I catch her. I lead her out of the shoot, and when all of her weight falls into me, I start to panic. A paramedic rushes over, and I help her walk Gin over to the ambulance. They have her lay down on a stretcher, and immediately put an IV in her arm. She weakly starring up at the ceiling. I pat her shoulder, and when I turn around to leave, she weakly grabs my wrist. "Good job Sakura. You earned that win. You better not let me down at state. I look forward to that race. I have a feeling it will be even more thrilling than today."

I smile at her, and she smiles back. "That means a lot, and don't worry Gin. I plan on bringing my game at State. It's the last one we're running after all."

She nods and lets go of my wrist. I say goodbye, and after the paramedic assures me she's only extremely dehydrated, I head over to the finish line where everyone is gathering.

I finished with a time of 13:07, a course and state record. I hadn't even realized it at the time, because I was to concerned with Gin. It took me about five minutes to get her situated in the Ambulance, so there are still runners coming in. It turns out that Tenten got third, barely beating Temari. Hinata and Umi had come in after those two, within a heartbeat of each other, but Hinata had slammed her foot down first. Umi came in shortly after, followed by a wobbly Midori. She got done, and puked into a trash can just outside of the shoot. I debated helping her because she was still there when I came back from helping Gin, but after remembering the way she ran her fingers down Sasuke's chest, I decided she deserved it.

I'm talking to Tenten about the course, when all of the sudden, I'm tackled by a mob. This time it isn't only Naruto and Ino, but Karin, Kiba and Suigetsu too. They're all talking at once and I only manage to make out a few "Good jobs" and the sarcastic "show off" from Suigetsu.

Sasuke comes walking over and I tackle him in a hug. It's finally starting to sink in on me that I just beat the number one ranked girl in the state.


	7. Expectations

**That's Life**

_Bang!_

I take off at the head of the pack. Neji will stick with me for the first mile, but I know I'll start to pull ahead. I always do, but it's not really what I strive to do. I could care less what place I get. My only goal, no dream, is to beat Itachi's legendary time. It's rare to break fifteen minutes, but Itachi pulled it off easily by getting a 14:27 his Senior year.

I just remember when I was a freshman. Itachi was a sophomore at college and had injured his Achilles tendon last cross country season. The doctor had told him he would never be able to run competitively again. He had been depressed for a bit, but who wouldn't if they had made the Olympic tryouts. He was supposed to go that year, but he was forced to drop off. I just remember being so determined to go in and beat his time right off the bat. I got a 15:36 that year an I've never seen my dad so disappointed. My sophomore year he expected it when I again didn't quite break 15. My junior year he wasn't even waiting with my mom at the finish line.

We reach the mile marker, and as I predicted, I start to pull ahead of Neji. I feel hope flare in me when I see my time is at 4:43, just three seconds off of Itachi's winning pace. I'm tired, but I only have a little over two miles left, and I need to beat Itachi. I don't care if I pass out, or if it isn't state meet, I need to beat that time.

It's the half mile, and I can barely breathe. I push through it though. When I passed my father, I could see shock in his eyes. That must mean I'm on the right track. The four hundred appears, and I push myself past the limit. If I was at a 110% before, I'm at 200% now. I don't think I've ever sprinted like this, not once.

I pass the finish line, and there's a flash of pink, and the next thing I know, Sakura has my arm thrown over her shoulder and she's supporting most of my weight. The edges of my vision are going black, and Sakura has to set me down because she was basically carrying me. I can see pride mixed with worry on her face. Itachi's blurry face pops up next to her with a smirk on his face. I can see the emotions in his eye though, and I feel a smile spread across my face. "You idiot." are the last words I hear before everything goes black.

"Teme's coming around! Everyone stare at him and don't say a word!"

"Naruto shut up! Why the fuck would we do that?"

"Hidan watch your language! We're in a hospital!"

"Sorry Mrs. Uchiha."

I blink open my eyes, to have everything slowly come into focus. The first thing I see is Naruto staring at me with his stupid face. If I didn't feel so weak right now, I would be strangling him. Next I see Sakura sitting next to me, still in her uniform. Kiba and Suigetsu are messing with the TV, while Neji is sitting in a chair reading a book. Ino and Karin are sharing the chair next to him. Hinata and Tenten are standing by them. Itachi, Hidan, Kisame, Shisui, and Deidara are standing in the corner. My mom runs over to me when she sees my eyes open and swoops down on me to engulf my face in kisses. I fight her off eventually and she stands there wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Good job, son."

The words vibrate through my body and come to rest in my heart. I look around everyone, to find my dad standing in the door. I would be crying right now, that is if Uchiha's cried. I'm shaking though. No one seems to notice though, because they're almost as stunned as I am.

"Dad…" I croak out.

He gives me a nod, and comes over to sit on the edge of the bed, opposite of Sakura. "You set a new state record today."

"By how much?" I ask.

"Fourteen seconds." He answers, patting my shoulder.

I lay my head back on the pillow. 14:13... No wonder I passed out. I've never heard of anything like it. It doesn't seem like it's me, although I sure am sore enough.

"Thanks." I mutter, suddenly overcome by a wave of exhaustion. I hear Naruto say, "haven't you slept enough yet?".

I ignore him. I'm too tired to come up with a witty comeback.


	8. Get your groove on

**That's Life**

That movie is great! Great, great, great! Whoop! I feel really energized right now! I'm hungry again too. Maybe Sasuke will go get cheese curds with me…

"Hey cakes! Come on! We're going to Culver's!" I shout at Sasuke running up the stairs.

I hear Sasuke grumble something about me using his mom's pet name for him, but I tune him out. "Ooooo I'm in! I really want a cookie dough concrete mixer!" I hear Tenten yell. That means that Neji and Hinata are coming too seeing as they're her ride home and Neji will do anything she says after putting in his two cents and trying to sound all manly and failing. "Everyone come! We can get an extra large order of cheese curds!"

"I'm in!" I hear Kiba and Naruto yell.

"I want some ice cream too." I hear Ino say.

"I want a burger!" Suigetsu hollers.

"I want gossip!" Karin screeches.

We all get into our cars, and I procrastinate knowing it will piss Sasuke off to be the last one there. He can't leave until I do, and I sit patiently until everyone has a good lead on us. I pull out at an agonizing pace, then shoot off headed for Culver's.

Sasuke rides on my butt the whole way there, and I roll down my window as I pull into the parking lot and flip him off.

I climb out of my car grabbing my keys and phone. I lock the car, then head inside with Sasuke following me in. Everyone is in line, half of them having already ordered. I jump in behind Kiba, and after he's done I order cheese curds and as an afterthought, I get a vanilla shake.

Sasuke and Neji get glasses of water and sit down before any of us. The Ice cream people get there stuff, and us more manly people (Me, Kiba, Naruto, and Suigetsu) wait at the counter. Once we get our curds and Suigetsu's burger, we head over to the big booth where everyone else is sitting. I slide in next to Sasuke, and Naruto slides in next followed by Suigetsu, then Kiba.

I bite into a cheese curd and sigh contently. I love this place. Tenten is devouring her cookie dough ice cream, and Karin and Ino are reviewing today's gossip. At the moment they're discussing who they think will get Homecoming King and Queen. They're pretty sure either Sasuke or Naruto will. Sasuke has basically all of the female population drooling over him, and Naruto has a Jesus complex and befriends everyone he says "hi, how's it going?" to. As for the Queen, almost everyone hates Karin, Hinata is nice, but too quiet for anyone to know, I'm a crazy bipolar freak (psh! What are they talking about! I'm totally normal compared to them!) who for some reason has a harem of guys from the Junior grade that can't seem to stop talking to her, and then Ino has the guys drooling, but the girls absolutely hate her for they are jealous of her looks. This will be a tough one. And of course, there are others in our grade, but even though everyone acts nice to them, they find them extremely annoying. There's a group of five guys in my grade that refer to themselves as the fab five. Little do they know everyone calls them the fag five. I sort of, kind of, might have a hand in creating that nickname… heh…

We all finish our food and stand up to go home seeing as it's ten thirty and I'm kind of tired now. I can tell everyone else is too. Well except Sasuke and Neji, but you can never tell if they're tired, unless it's Sasuke right after he's rolled out of bed. He looks like an angry bear who just got poked in the ass with a stick while hibernating and he's out for vengeance. Let's just say he's not a morning person.

I go out to my car and turn my Ipod on and hit shuffle. _Everything Back But You _by Avril Lavigne comes on and I roll down my windows so it blares through the parking lot so all of my friends here it.

"Loser!" Tenten yells.

"My ears!" Naruto squeals while covering his ears. "Gah! Turn that shit off!" I hear Suigetsu snarl.

"Because you wrote, I wish you were her! You left out the e! You left without me! And now your somewhere out there with a, hey! Hey! Psycho babe!" I hear Karin scream along with the song.

I back out of the parking lot, doing my punk head nod with my hand pumping out of the rolled down window. I zoom down the empty streets heading for home.

I look freakin amazing. I have the whole getup. I have a red bandana tied around the top of my head, and a brown pirate hat on top of that. I have an awesome pirate's coat that my mom wore to a Halloween party when she was in college that she dug out for me. I have on brown leggings, and some awesome knee high heeled boots. I forgot to mention that the coat has a fake parrot attached to the shoulder. It's pretty amazing. I even have Jack Sparrow's compass which I won from some magazine contest.

I head downstairs, and when I get there, I realize Sasuke probably won't dress up on his own. I run back up and grab the eye patch I opted not to wear and stuff it in my bag. I then go down and mix together a banana chocolate smoothie. I pour it into a disposable cup, and run out to my car seeing as it took me a while to put on my thick eye makeup. I start my car and _Cyclone _comes on. I sing along and drive down the street bubbling over with excitement.

I cheer as loud as my lungs will allow and act like a moron. I'm standing between Ino and Hinata. Ino's actions are similar to mine, but Hinata is just smiling, and occasionally giggling next to me. I made her promise she would do the cheers, though.

If you haven't guessed, it's Thursday night; powder puff night. I had to quick run home after cross country practice to shower and change out of my punk rocker stuff and into my Senior shirt and some running tight capris. We're all smashed into the Gym and put up in the bleachers. There are four sections, and I'm obviously in the Senior's section. Almost the whole grade, excluding a few drugies, are here. I got here early, so I got in the front row. Ino, Karin, and their fellow cheerleaders are to my left, while Hinata, Tenten, Neji, and Sasuke are to my right. Right now the guys who signed up for volleyball are warming up with a few of our girls on volleyball acting as coaches. Naruto, Kiba, and Suigetsu are the only guys I know well that are on the team. Of course I know the other's names, but I don't talk to them on a regular basis. Those three are on the cheerleading team too. I brought my camera, because I heard that Kiba can do the splits and I am getting a picture of that.

The referee's blow their whistles, and everyone clears off the courts, except the starting players. We are against the Sophomores, and the Freshmen and Juniors are on the one next to us. All of the cheerleaders jump down on the ground and we all look down to them to see what cheer they're going to do.

"Seniors! Seniors! Eat em' up! Eat em' up!"

We all join in and make the hand motions to go with it. Our class has a lot of loudmouths, so this is a very easy category for us to win. In the homecoming week, we get points from a variety of activities. There's the dress up days, (we won it) boys' volleyball, girls' football, the crowds cheering volume, (we will probably win it) the boys' cheerleading team, the skit, and the float (which got second. I missed the parade while I was getting cleaned up).

The game starts and the Seniors get the ball first. Naruto serves it, and the Sophomores scramble around to return it. Ichigo, a tall basketball player, jumps up and slams it down on the Sophomore's side. Oh yeah.

"Seniors, Seniors don't be shy! Let us hear your battle cry!"

"V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!" The whole gymnasium seems to vibrate with our screaming.

We won the volleyball, and I watch as the girls scramble to get down to play football. It's more like ultimate Frisbee with a football, but it's fun to watch. Ino, as crazy as this sounds, can actually catch just about anything. Karin is really good too, and has amazing aim. It's mostly volleyball and cheerleading girls playing. The top twelve runners of both genders aren't allowed by Kakashi to be in the powder puff games, because he doesn't want us getting hurt so close to Conference. Otherwise, I would be out there right now. I whoop loudly as the game begins with Karin hurling the ball down the gym while Ino zooms right under it. This will be epic.

It's the halftime of the finals of the football, and the boy cheerleaders file down onto the floor. Freshman go first. There's fifteen of them, which is surprising considering they are typically unorganized since this is there first year doing this. They do a crowd cheer, but that's not a smart move. The key is to be as loud as you can on your own, because the crowd doesn't count. Also you want at least one stunt. After they're done, Sophomore's go. There's only three of them standing there, and no one can even hear them. "Ok Ju-… Oh, you weren't done. It looked like you were." says Kakashi after getting yelled at.

We all look over at them and wait for the cheerleaders to cheer. Instead I see movement in the bleachers, and a fourth member flips backwards off the third bleacher. Everyone gasps expecting him to break his neck, but he surprisingly doesn't. They did better than the Freshman only because they had a stunt. If they had been louder, they could have done a lot better.

Juniors go next, and they pick the eat em' up cheer that we did earlier. Afterwards, they form a pyramid. We're next and twenty guys file down.

"We've (clap clap) Got (clap clap) Spirit (clap clap clap clap! S-p-i-r-i-t, spirit! Let's hear it!" They actually do the hand clapping right and sway together. Then they move on to the cheer based off of the song _Shake_. They divide into three sections, and the middle section crouches down.

"Eh naw naw!" says the left side. The right side echos them. The second time they do it, the middle group jumps up and yells "Whoop!" They do that twice, then they start jumping around in a random formation dancing stupidly. "Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, Seniors! Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, Seniors!"

After they do the cheer three times, two guys get down on the ground, and Naruto climbs on their backs to stand. Kiba runs up behind them, and with the help of two other guys, he's able to jump up so that he's holding onto Naruto's shoulders and has his feet wrapped around so they're on Naruto's thighs. Naruto reaches back and lifts Kiba up by his armpits. Once he's stable, Kiba brings his legs out, and is doing the splits while being suspended in the air by Naruto. It's the best stunt I think I've ever seen guys pull off. I cheer like a maniac.

We won football. We're cool like that.

I pull Shikamaru's jersey on and tie it with a ponytail. I rake my fingers through my hair, spray perfume on me, and head out to stand by the stage in the gym. We just got done with phy ed and we're waiting for the bell to ring to move on to our next class.

The bell sounds, and I lazily swing myself off of the stage. Our classes are shortened from an hour and a half to an hour and fifteen minutes so that we'll have almost two hours four our pep rally at the end of the day. I have a skinny now, so the class will go from forty five minutes to thirty.

I find Sasuke waiting outside the gym doors for me, and we walk down to the other side of the school to go to band.

I absolutely HATED my spot last year. I had to sit next to the crappiest guy on earth. I can't even explain what exactly it was that he did; but he was just so rude, and disgusting, and I was constantly on edge. At one point in my Freshman year, he decided I was going to have to put away the stand. I learned quickly that if you try to talk back, he always has something to say. One day he pushed me to far, so I took to kicking him when the teacher wasn't looking and dumping his shit on the floor every band practice until he learned to hold his tongue. I think he caused some of my hair to fall out. I only stuck through it so I could go to Florida this year. Now I have one of the guys from the grade below me sitting next to me. He's got a pretty interesting character. He sort of reminds me of Naruto. He even has the blond hair, it's just a bit longer and lays a little flatter than Naruto's. It's slightly off shade too.

I look at the white board and see instructions to grab our instruments and head outside to practice the half time show. Sasuke waits for me, and we walk out together. None of our other friends are in band. Ino used to play flute, but she quit after watching American Pie and we teased her relentlessly in eighth grade.

We practice our formations, and when our lips are starting to turn blue from how cold it is, he lets us go back in. I throw my trombone in its case and head towards Sasuke who is nice today and is waiting for me. We jump in the lunch line before everyone else can get down here, and quickly get our food. It's pasty today, so I go with a salad with carrots, cucumbers, cheese, olives, ranch dressing, and croutons. I sit down next to Sasuke, and let out a yawn. "I don't think I'll make it to the pep rally. I feel like I'm going to collapse from exhaustion. Carry me?"

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Sure. And I'll quit cross country and join football while I'm at it too."

I switch topics. I feel like talking, but I don't know what to talk about. Hmmm…. "Me and you should totally to one of the DECA games. We'd win the temper tantrum one."

Ino sits down. "Now, I could see where you'd win that Sakura, but how is Sasuke going to? He doesn't express his emotions so freely." Ino says while pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"They changed the temper tantrum rules this year. Since apparently it's unfair that I always win it, we're going to put on those step counter things and whoever gets the most steps in a minute, their grade wins it." I say while I try to chew a tough crouton.

Soon everyone joins us, and we have a heated conversation with Naruto, of course initiating it. "If a bird dresses as a dog, is it a bird or dog?"

"A bird!"

"Dog!" "What bird dresses up?"

Naruto glares at Ino, Karin, and Suigetsu. "NO! You gave me mixed answers! And Suigetsu, this bird dresses like a dog. It's a convincing costume, and it always wears it, and it adopts the behaviors of a dog."

I think it over. "Well, it's still a bird, because it's only wearing a costume."

Naruto scratches his head. "Then does that apply to people who get sex changes? If they were a guy, but they're now a girl, are they a guy or girl?" Kiba smacks his head. "Why are we discussing this?"

Neji shakes his head. "This is Naruto. What do you expect? Your IQ is bound to drop when something comes out of his mouth."

"Amen." I hear Karin mutter.

"HEY I HEARD THAT!" Naruto says standing up and pointing an accusing finger at Neji."

"And so did I, now sit down." Sasuke says, while tugging on Naruto's athletic bright orange shorts. They fall down to reveal LMFAO boxers, and Naruto starts singing _Sexy and I Know it_.

"Uzamaki pull your pants up!" I hear Iruka sensei yell.

"PANTS ON THE GROUND! PANTS ON THE GROUND! LOOKIN' LIKE A FOOL WIT' CHO' PANTS ON DA GROUND! GOLD IN YO M-"

"NOW!"

"Yes sir!" and with that he sits down after yanking them up to his bellybutton and tucking his shirt in.

Ino looks at him and rolls her eyes. "_How _am I related to you?"

"You love me!" He screeches.

"Incest!" Everyone besides the two blondes yells.

"Ok! Time for the pyramid building games! Seniors first! Three girls and three guys come out!"

I always go on top, seeing as I'm the most petite in the grade. I'm not short, I'm just built small. There's a difference.

Karin and Tenten go in the middle row, and Naruto, Kiba, and Suigetsu go on the bottom. Our group is the one who does it every year, because we are the most competitive when it comes to this, and we practice. Plus, we get along _way_ better than the rest of our grade. I'm surprised there has only been one occasion where someone's brought a knife to school.

We go out and stand on the line indicated with duct tape. We have to run to the mats when they say go, and form a pyramid as fast as we can. The guys start in front, with Karin and Tenten right behind them, and me last.

"Ready, GO!"

The guys sprint ahead of us and are on the ground in position just in time for Karin and Tenten. I literally jump up and land perfectly. "4.56 seconds!"

The Senior's section erupts with cheering. We just set a new school record. I climb down, and head back over to my seat by Hinata and Sasuke. Ino, Naruto, and Karin make their way up to the stage to do their skit, and while they head over to set up, we finish the pyramids for the other grades. The Juniors get a time of 7.84 seconds, the Freshman get 17.34 (they fell a lot), and the Sophomores get 27.94 (they were laughing too hard).

The Senior skit is just making fun of the Freshman for standing in one huge pack. They don't ever part, it's a clump of up to a hundred kids at all times.

The Junior's skit sucks, and no one can hear it, and the Freshman skit is a little cute poem that one of the girls wrote. It's a girl in detention writing a note, and narrated it, while everyone else acts it out behind her.

The Sophomore skit… is about our grade; my group of friends to be exact. The narrator sets up the theme as our fifth class reunion in Disney Land. It starts with "Naruto", "Sasuke", "Suigetsu", "Kiba", and "Sai" walking on stage. Naruto and Sai are holding hands.

"Naruto" says, "Hey guys! What's up with you?"

"Shut up moron. Where's Sakura?" "Sasuke" says. I snicker, and the real Sasuke elbows me. This should be good.

"Suigetsu" says, "Great! I promised my mom that this would be my last year as a Senior."

Just then, "Ino" comes prancing on stage. It's a guy with a blond wig on and high heels. I can't contain my laugh when I hear Ino huff behind me. "She" belches, and "Kiba" slips on a pair of heart sunglasses to make it look like one of those cartoons when the eyes become hearts. "I love when you do that babe. It turns me on."

I hear a few teachers mutter about that one, but they aren't stopped.

"Sai" looks up, and says, "Hey! Here comes Ugly!"

I scowl at my nickname. How did they know Sai calls me that?

"I" come running on and just before I reach "Sasuke", "I" scream his name and hook "my" arms and legs around him. I hear Sasuke snort, and it's my turn to elbow him. "Shut up." I mutter.

The skit proceeds to make fun of us for a bit, with parts about Karin's sluttiness and "Hinata" faints. Ever since she actually did Freshman year, no one has let it go. Poor Hina.


	9. Basics

**That's Life**

I wake up to my iPod dock blaring out _I Can't Do It Alone _by 3OH!3. I groan, and turn off the alarm. After a minute, I turn down the volume to a much softer level, and the music is just enough to help me wake up slowly. After listening to _One Less Lonely Girl _and _Sexyback_, I role out of bed and grab my uniform for cross country. The big Conference meet in Suna is today. All of the division one teams within roughly forty five miles of us are here. Sectionals is next, and if we make it past that, State. There'll be almost forty teams there. I think we stand a good chance of going. We're ranked number one for girl's teams. The guys are ranked fourth.

When I'm dressed, I go downstairs to find my mom just finishing making breakfast. She made me eggs and toast, the breakfast I eat before every meet. I quickly eat it, then I run back up the stairs to brush my teeth, and grab my bag that I packet last night. I have an extra sweatshirt, my spikes, warm up shoes, money, my phone, and a t-shirt that says KXC on it, and the back says, "Some call it obsessive compulsive. We call it Cross Country."

We get team shirts every year. My freshman shirt says on the back, "Do you like my shirt? After the race I'll let you read the front". My sophomore shirt says, "Our blood, our sweat, your tears". My junior shirt says, "You ask me why I run? The same reason I breathe". Cross Country sayings are the best.

I put my light green watch on and look at the time. It's twenty to seven. I grab my Ipod and run down the stairs. I grab my lanyard with my keys on it and slip my feet in my lime green crocks. "Bye mom!" I shout, then I'm out the door.

I jump in my car and turn on the radio. I pull into Tenten's driveway, and she comes out of the house and gets in the car next to me. Her hair is French braided down her back and she has lime green pre wrap. I would wear pre wrap, but it doesn't stay on and it drives me nuts. I prefer just to have my bangs whip around. It's not really getting in the way of anything.

We drive to the school and get there with ten minutes until the bus leaves. We climb up in it and I find Sasuke sitting in our usual seat. I slide past him so I'm on the inside. I place fluffernutter against the window and bring my feet up so I can curl up. When the bus starts to move, I can feel myself drifting off.

I stretch when I feel Sasuke poke me in the bicep. While I was sleeping, I moved my head from fluffernutter to Sasuke's shoulder. He's scowling at me. "You are the most restless sleeper." he growls.

I smile at him as I stretch again. "You've told me that since freshman year and it hasn't changed yet. What makes you think it will make a difference this time?"

His glower doesn't waver. "I'm afraid if I stop saying it you'll get worse."

I nod and roll my eyes. I grab my bag from under my feet and put in on my lap. We've arrived at Suna and the bus driver is just pulling into our designated parking space. We all pile off and meet up with the kids from the other bus. Hinata, Tenten and Neji were on that bus and they make their way over to us. We walk in the front of the sea of black and green, and set our stuff down where we always set up when we come here. The guys leave to go set up the tent about ten feet from us, and when they're done, we move our stuff under the shelter just in case it rains, although it's not likely. It's pretty cold, though. I dig out my extra sweatshirt which just happens to be the one that I stole from Sasuke at the last meet we had here. Our tent is right next to the finish line and right up against the rope so we have a good view of the runners. The girls will race first, followed by the guys. Our race is at 10 and it's nine right now. I pull on my warm up shoes, and go stand beside the tent. When all of the other girl eventually make their way over to me, I lead them around the course at a fast walk. We start jogging at half way, and once again, the guy pass us towards the end. When they run past, the Ipod amplifier I'm carrying is blasting out _Sexy and I Know It_ and they sing along. They slow down to run with us, and we have a choir of a hundred kids all singing LMFAO. Naruto would be so proud if he saw this.

We get back at around 9:30 and everyone splits into small groups to stretch. All of the seniors gather by a tree and start stretching. One moment, I'm standing with my hip cocked to the side and stretching my arm, and the next I'm on the ground with a blond idiot suffocating me with her hair. "Get… off!" I huff out.

Eventually she rolls off and sits up to stare down at me taking deep breathes. I sit up and look around to find that Naruto did a similar thing to Sasuke, only now they're wrestling. If Kakashi saw them, Naruto would be skinned and hanging by a toe from the finish line results board. Karin, Suigetsu, and Kiba are standing behind me, watching the wrestling match with great interest. After getting kicked in the face, Naruto lets go of Sasuke and crawls over to me suddenly losing interest in the Uchiha. He hugs me and screams something along the lines of "Being very proud".

"Shut up you idiot! I'm trying to get into my running mood and you're interfering!" I say pushing him off.

He mocks being hurt, and ruffles my hair, before standing up. Ino has already gotten up, and offers me a hand. I take it and she pulls me up. I mutter a thanks and go back to stretching. They all take a hint and go off to take up cheering posts all over the course.

"Fifteen minutes to race time!" I hear a woman announce over the speakers.

I set my Ipod down and head over. Our slot is number 7, the slot on the end. It's just big enough to fit fifteen in the front. The Varsity and top scoring JV girls stand in the front with everyone else behind us. We do a few strides, get our pep talk from Kakashi, put some Vicks around our noses, and go back to our slot with five minutes left. I close my eyes and sing _Photofinish_ to myself.

"One minute!" The starter calls.

I bend down and massage my calves. "Fifteen seconds!" I start singing _Sexy and I Know It_ to myself. "Ten…. Nine…. Eight…. Seven…. Six…. Five…" _BANG!_

I take off, leading the pack along with Temari, Midori, Gin, and Tenten. I have Gin to my right, and Tenten on my left. Midori is in front of me, and even though it's only the start of the race, I'm already pissed off. I'm not someone you want to piss off.

Gin kicks it in after the first eight hundred, and when she starts to ditch us, I take off after her. I look over my shoulder, and find Tenten and Temari are battling it out with Midori right behind them, not looking so good.

Even though Gin is my rival, it's almost a companionable silence between the two of us; well that is if you don't count the cheering crowd. I've already seen Naruto three times, and it's only the first mile. Just as we step on the mats that mark the mile, I see the clock says we're at a 5:26 mile pace. I'm surprised I'm not breathing harder. Gin, I can tell is laboring, and I feel a rush of determination and hope flood through me. I pick up our pace, and she fights to keep it. We come back across the bridge that you cross at the beginning, and up ahead I can see the two mile marker. I pick up the pace even more when I hear Naruto screaming out my name. By the time I reach the four hundred, I can feel the burn. Gin is really struggling, and I think something might be wrong. "Come on Gin! We're almost done." I huff out.

She turns to look at me, and actually gives me a genuine smile. She keeps with me, and only at the two hundred where I start sprinting, do I finally pull ahead. I finish five seconds ahead of her, and when she starts to collapse, I catch her. I lead her out of the shoot, and when all of her weight falls into me, I start to panic. A paramedic rushes over, and I help her walk Gin over to the ambulance. They have her lay down on a stretcher, and immediately put an IV in her arm. She weakly starring up at the ceiling. I pat her shoulder, and when I turn around to leave, she weakly grabs my wrist. "Good job Sakura. You earned that win. You better not let me down at state. I look forward to that race. I have a feeling it will be even more thrilling than today."

I smile at her, and she smiles back. "That means a lot, and don't worry Gin. I plan on bringing my game at State. It's the last one we're running after all."

She nods and lets go of my wrist. I say goodbye, and after the paramedic assures me she's only extremely dehydrated, I head over to the finish line where everyone is gathering.

I finished with a time of 13:07, a course and state record. I hadn't even realized it at the time, because I was to concerned with Gin. It took me about five minutes to get her situated in the Ambulance, so there are still runners coming in. It turns out that Tenten got third, barely beating Temari. Hinata and Umi had come in after those two, within a heartbeat of each other, but Hinata had slammed her foot down first. Umi came in shortly after, followed by a wobbly Midori. She got done, and puked into a trash can just outside of the shoot. I debated helping her because she was still there when I came back from helping Gin, but after remembering the way she ran her fingers down Sasuke's chest, I decided she deserved it.

I'm talking to Tenten about the course, when all of the sudden, I'm tackled by a mob. This time it isn't only Naruto and Ino, but Karin, Kiba and Suigetsu too. They're all talking at once and I only manage to make out a few "Good jobs" and the sarcastic "show off" from Suigetsu.

Sasuke comes walking over and I tackle him in a hug. It's finally starting to sink in on me that I just beat the number one ranked girl in the state.


	10. Short Lived

**That's Life**

"Hey Teme! Sakura!" I hear over my song. I'm listening to my competition play list. I just got back from walking the course, and I'm using Sasuke's stomach as a pillow. He has this thing where he has to lay down before a race and get relaxed. It doesn't matter what I do, as long as I have music.

I put _I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby_ on pause, and look over to the front of the tent. I see Naruto waving at us. I give him a slight nod, but I turn my head away from him, and hit play. He must get the message that I'm getting "in the zone", because we're not disturbed again.

"Fifteen minutes to race time!"

I finish triple knotting my spikes and stand up, flexing my feet and making sure they aren't too tight. I step out from under the shelter, and I slowly jog over to the starting line. I'm the last from our team to get over there. Even the alternates beat me. Our alternates this year are Ami and Kin. They're the top of JV so they're next in line to run if one of us gets injured or really sick.

I do some leg and arm stretches, and lead the girls out on a stride. Kakashi meets us out there. He gives us the Vicks container, and then just stands there starring at us for awhile. Finally, he speaks. "You got this far, I don't see why you shouldn't go all the way. We did it last year girls, let's do it again." We all cheer. He continues. "Seniors! This is your last chance! Sakura, I want to see you up there with Gin. You should try going out faster this time. I could tell you had no problem with the first mile. You're strong enough to push through the pain. "Tenten, Hinata; I want you two up there too. Don't let those who you've surpassed beat you now. We're not done until the scoreboard flashes. Oh, and remember, I'm yet to be impressed."

He's walking away, and we all roll our eyes. If anyone not on our team heard him say that, they would think his last sentence was kind of harsh. It's actually more of an inside joke. He always says he's, "easy to please, but hard to impress". He's never once been impressed while I was going to school here, but I learned not to take it seriously. I don't think anyone will ever hear it.

"Five minutes!"

I start stretching. I look to my right and left, and observe that Kiri and Suna are on either side of us. Gin is right next to me, with only the white line divider between us. "Good luck Gin." I say while flashing a smile at her.

She stands up from stretching, and surprises me by hugging me. "Same to you Sakura. I can't wait!"

She lets go of me, and I continue with my stretching. "One minute!"

I crouch down, and before I focus on the coming race, I look for familiar faces to try to calm my jumbled up stomach. I feel like I'm about to puke. Like seriously, I can't take the anticipation. Just before I lower my head, I see my mom. She gives me a thumbs up, and I smile at her. I'm so happy she could make it. She's been sick with a bad cold for the past week, and she didn't know if she'd be able to come. She's still pale and her couch won't go away, but she says she feels a bit better.

"Fifteen seconds!"

I lower my head now, and crouch a bit to get ready to spring forward. My stomach is knotting, and I fight the urge to gag. "Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five…" _BANG!_

I take off at a full sprint. I decided that I would listen to Kakashi and start off my race harder. I think that as long as I don't keep up the sprint for too long, I'll be okay for the rest of the race. A few try to sprint with me, but quickly drop back, thinking I'm crazy for attempting it. I soon find that I have no one to use as my pacer, and it takes me awhile to decide on one. Once I get to a pace that I know I'll barely be able to keep, I settle into it. To try to distract myself from the exertion pains, I skim the crowd as I run past them. I actually laugh when I see Itachi and his friends. They all have their shirts off, and Itachi has the S, Deidara the A, Kisame the K, Hidan the U, Shisui the R, and Sasori has the A. I'm pretty sure Mikoto has no idea about this, because they would get a beating and a stern talking to about catching a cold from the chilly weather. Fugaku would personally beat Itachi and Shisui.

They chant my name, and I spare them a wink when I run past. They respond with wolf whistles. Not to much further on, I find Naruto and Kiba. They're in red body suits and Naruto's wearing a pink wig. "GO SAKURA!"

I also see Sasuke lingering by them. He's usually relaxing right about now, but he's sweet enough to come watch me. I'll kill that moron if this messes up his race. His dad will hold a grudge against me until the day he dies.

Ino, Karin, and Suigetsu are standing a bit further down. Ino's in a red sports bra and has KXC written on her stomach. Karin and Suigetsu are dressed normally, with borrowed cross country shirts and skinny jeans. They hold up a sign that has, "Beat em' Blossom!" written on it with cherry blossoms painted all over it.

I pass the mile marker, and I chance a look over my shoulder. There's no one in sight. That means there's at least a twenty second lead I have at the moment. I can't risk slowing down though, because this is where Gin picks it up. There's a girl from a distant city who's probably right with Gin at the moment. I think her name was Mai.

I take a deep breath in and hold it to try to get rid of the side ache I have. Unfortunately, the deep breath slightly relieves the pain in my side, but it also triggers my stomach ache. I fight the urge to slow down, and push my pace faster than I ever have. There's only an eight hundred left, and if I want to get into KU with a full ride scholarship, I need to win this race. Sasuke's already been accepted, and if I don't get a scholarship, I won't be able to afford it. Neji got in too, and Suigetsu has an offer like mine. If he wins a swimming event at State, they'll take him.

I look over my shoulder to see if I need to start sprinting, and I see Gin has snuck up on me. She's gaining fast, and I can't let her pass me. I push myself up to a sprint, and I concentrate all of my willpower on not keeling over and passing out. I lengthen my stride, pump my arms, and allow myself to breathe heavily. It doesn't matter if I give myself an even worse side cramp, because I only have fifty meters left to go. The deafening roar of over a thousand people almost feels like a gust of wind propelling me forward. I feel like I'm running as fast as I possibly can, but it seems so slow with all of these people around me. I can hear Gin's ragged breathing, and I give one more spurt of energy that carries me across the finish line and into Kakashi's waiting arms. He hugs me, while I pant and cry into his shirt. He twirls me, and sets me down and I'm engulfed by Mikoto. "Sakura! I'm so proud of you! Are you ok sweetie? Do you need some water? Do you want to sit down, or walk it off?"

Fugaku pats my shoulder, and the next thing I know, I'm engulfed by Itachi and his half naked friends. They aren't forming words, it's more of a screeching and jumping up and down. After Tenten and Hinata cross the finish line right next to each other, the rest of my friends come over by us. They give all of us hugs, and Sasuke even kisses my forehead much to the amusement of Itachi and Shisui. He gives them the stink eye, and they back off after teasing him one last time.

I look around for my mom, but I don't see her anywhere. I start heading through the crowd, calling for her. I walk along the edge of the course, looking all around for her. Just when I'm about to give up, I hear someone yelling for a paramedic. An image of Gin after the last race crosses my mind, and I run forward to help. I squeeze through the crowd that has formed around the poor runner, and I freeze when I realize it's my own mother lying on the ground. "MOM!"

I kneel down next to her and check her pulse. It's faint, but it's still there. "HELP! HELP!"

I hear someone hysterically screams for help, and after glancing over to Itachi and Naruto, we head over in the direction of the screams. It's coming from alongside the course right next to the one hundred marker. We jog over, and a group of paramedics arrive at the same time as us. The onlookers clear a path for them, and I'm able to see Sakura hunched over her mom. They try to pull her away, but she refuses to leave her mother's side. I rush forward, and wrap my arms around her. "I start murmuring softly in her ear, and she flings her arms around me and sobs. When the paramedics start to carry her mother off in a stretcher, she takes off after them. I try to go with, but Naruto grabs my arm.

"She wouldn't want you to leave without racing. Don't drop out Sasuke. She's strong. She'll be ok until you're done.


	11. You're never alone

**That's Life** I'm almost at the eight hundred marker, and the noise is unbelievable. It's like a whisper though, compared to the loud voice in my head urging me faster and faster until it's almost inhuman how fast I'm going. It's not urging me to win, but to get to Sakura. She needs me, and every second she's alone, I feel my speed increase. Neji didn't even keep with me for the first mile. No one did, not even Ejuu. This isn't just a race, it's an optical I must pass in order to get to Sakura.

I can only imagine what she's going through, with her mom just randomly collapsing. She wouldn't have been prepared for it, and it must have knocked the breath out of her. She shouldn't be alone right now, but I can't run any faster than I am right now. I'm at a dead on sprint, and I don't feel a thing. I'm numb to all of my different aches and pains, and nothing, not even my limit is going to keep me from pushing all the way through the finish line. I can't stop running there though, Itachi can drive me. He'll have to sprint with me. I'm not slowing down. Not until I reach Sakura.

I pass the finish line, and find my family. My mom tries to hug me, but I slip past her and grab Itachi's wrist. He must know what I want, because he runs right along with me, and I let go of him. He leads me back to his car, and we take off down the street headed for the hospital.

"Her heart is acting out. I'm afraid the cancer has spread further than what was thought." Says a doctor.

I look up at her with a tear stained face. "Cancer? Her cancer's gone, isn't it?"

She crinkles her eyebrows. "It came back almost two months ago."

I vision becomes unfocussed, and I feel my breath leave me. Cancer? Two months? Why didn't she tell me?

"Would you like to see her? I'm afraid she won't make it much longer. She signed DNR papers, so we will not attempt to revive her when she goes.

I stare at her in disbelief. Did she just tell me with a straight face that my mother is about to die?

I jump out of my seat and sprint down the halls. I glance at the clip boards on each door until I find my moms room. I burst in and find her already looking at me. "Mom." I say with my voice cracking.

"Sakura, come here."

I walk uncertainly to her bed and sit down on the edge of her bed. It doesn't feel like this is really happening. It's like when you think about someone dying and you don't really feel any emotions. I don't feel anything, not even my breaking heart. It doesn't hurt at all, so why am I crying.

She reaches up and wipes my eyes. "Don't cry for to long sweetie. You look better with that smile of yours. Please don't get so upset. I don't you to choke up every time you think about me."

I grip her hand in between both of mine. "Don't talk like that mom. It's going to be fine."

She gives me a small smile. "They already told me my chances of survival. It's less than 5%, and even then I'll only live for a week if I'm lucky. It's just my time. God is calling me away from here. I can't hold on for much longer. I can already feel my damn heart faltering."

At her last sentence, my own heart fails for a few seconds. "I'm not ready to be by myself mom. I'm scared." I whisper.

"Sakura, don't you worry about that. You have Sasuke, and Itachi, and Mikoto, and even Fugaku. They've agreed to take you in if anything ever happened to me. You'll never be alone sweetie. I'll be waiting in your dreams. Hey, if you finally start going to church, maybe you'll be able to speak to me through your thoughts."

I find myself fighting the urge to roll my eyes. "I'm sorry mom. I should be the one comforting you. You'll always live on… in… in my thoughts." I say between shuddering breaths.

She gives me a dazzling smile, and I return a smaller version of it. "I love you Sakura. And, good job today…"

The monitor starts to slow down when she shuts her eyes. I squeeze her hand, and when I'm sure she can't see me, I allow my emotions to resurface. The monitor gradually beeps less and less, until there's one continuous beep. "Mom." I sob.

I lay my head down on her stomach, and squeeze my eyes shut. Moment of all of our fond memories flash through my mind, and I end up sobbing harder. She can't be gone. I'm not married yet! She doesn't have grandchildren, or even any age spots. She raised me by herself, and held down an amazing job, while still making it to to all of my sporting events. I don't remember one time that she wasn't there for me when I needed her. She gave up everything for me, and never once complained. And now she's dead, and even though I know I'm not alone in my head, my heart still aches for the loss.

"Sir! You can't go in there! Sir!"

I push past yet another nurse, and sprint down the hall. I scan the clipboards on the walls, until I find Mrs. Haruno's.

I slam the door open, to find Sakura hunched over her mom. The monitor displays a flat line while letting out an eerie siren. "Sakura…" I say.

She looks up, and my heart tears in half when I see the look in her eyes. I go to her side, and gently I wrap my arms around her.

I don't know how long we were in there. All's I know is that I didn't dare take her out until she was asleep. When her shuddering breaths become more smoothed over, I gently pick her up, and walk out of the room. I head for the elevator, where I find my family starring at me awaiting news. "She's gone." I say quietly.

My mom turns to my dad and buries her face in his chest. Itachi looks down, while Shisui closes his eyes and shakes his head.

We move into the elevator, and Itachi pushes the ground level button. The doors close, and I look down at Sakura. Her eyes are still ringed with red, and her nose is running. She deserves better than this, and I'll do anything to make her life easier than it is. I won't let her go through this again. She may be strong, but no one can go through this alone. Even if she insists she can, I won't let her. I'll protect her until the day I die.

The door opens, and the ding wakes Sakura up. I gently set her down, and wrap my arm over her shoulders. "Let's go home." I say quietly. She gives me a blank stare, before nodding.

I stumble into the lobby, leaning against Sasuke for support, only to find it crammed with people. Friends, strangers, fellow runners, everyone. Naruto and Ino are the first to come forward. Everyone else follows them. They all form around me and Sasuke, and envelope us in hugs. Naruto says, "We're all here for you Sakura, so don't you dare think you're alone."

I'm crying again, but a small, tired smile forms on my lips. I don't know how long it will take, but I think I can get over this with the help of all of these people. Besides, my mom can see whatever I do from now on, so I need to work harder to please her. It will be hard, but hey, that's life.


End file.
